Blessing Markers

I have been wandering to and from the train at least twice a day and noticing more things each time. The most recent thing are these designs on the ground. I asked my roommate what they are and he says they are some sort of "blessing marker more or less." I don't know exactly what that means, but they are beautiful and make the walk to and from the train at least a little more pleasant. Most homes wash these off every morning and redraw new ones. So here are a few pictures.







In addition to these, I awoke this morning to someone chanting and the sound was close by. When I went to take my daily bath out of a bucket I noticed that the house directly next door was having some sort of religious ceremony. I peeked in through the window of my bathroom just to see if I could get a glimpse of it, or any sort of the action. Not shockingly it looked very much like any religious service I've ever attended. There was a head of the gathering who was wearing slightly different vestments than the others. He was doing most of the chanting with somewhat uninspired responsive chanting from the guy sitting next to him. A couple of the people looked pretty bored and the whole ordeal smelled really wonderful.

It's good know to that there are some things which tend to hold true worldwide. Apparently, decorated the front of the home with religious themes and having religious services boring to most in attendance are two such things.